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There is no formal definition of Sustainable Fashion and can mean different things to different companies but generally, what makes fashion sustainable is if the company’s profits are made with or without high environmental and human costs. Find our more here.

Organic cotton is generally referred to as cotton that is processed and grown without the use of toxic chemicals and harmful pesticides but certified (GOTS) organic cotton goes even beyond that.

1. It’s better for the environment

Organic fibres are grown without the use of synthetic fertilisers or potentially toxic pesticides. By building soil fertility, organic farmers help lock CO2 into the soil, helping mitigate climate change. It also avoids the use of the toxic pesticides that, in non-organic systems, are responsible for poisoning wildlife and rivers, as well as killing an estimated 16,000 people each year.

2. It’s better for workers

By avoiding potentially toxic pesticides cotton workers benefit by avoiding the associated health problems and deaths common in non-organic cotton production. Avoiding pesticides also reduces production costs and farmer debts – the burden of pesticide debt has resulted in thousands of suicides in India which is the world’s largest cotton producer.

3. It’s non GM

GM is banned in organic systems, while an estimated a significant amount of all cotton grown worldwide is genetically modified. GM cotton poses a potential risk to wildlife and human health, as well as exposing farmers to unnecessary expense.

4. There’s restricted use of chemicals and limited residues

GOTS ensures that the chemicals used in processing textiles meet strict requirements on toxicity and biodegradability. Final products are restricted in the amount of allergenic, carcinogenic or toxic chemical residues. These residues can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin and may cause allergies, skin rashes or respiratory problems.

In contrast, non-organic manufacture uses tens of thousands of acutely toxic chemicals, many of which are classified as hazardous by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

5. Factory conditions are better

Poor working conditions and rights in the garments industry are common place. GOTS certified organic textiles must meet social criteria based on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. These cover minimum wages, working hours, child labour, freedom of association, discrimination, harsh or inhumane treatment and more.

There has been lots of factory deaths in recent years, both documented and un-documented. One of the most documented ones would be the Rana Plaza tragedy (2013) in Bangladesh where the factory building collapsed and over 1000 people died and 2,500 were injured.

This happened because the factory owner wanted to complete an important ( more important than the safety of his workers) order and sent the workers inside the factory, even though he knew it was unsafe. Workers could not refuse to work as they would risk losing their jobs and their livelihood.This is just one of the tragedies but there has been so many more. Only just a few months ago, 72 people died in a shoe factory in the Philippines.

Then there are entire villages in India that suffer from crippling debts and toxic poisoning from cotton production.

This is just part of the human cost of making the fast fashion that we so desire.

Ethical fashion is fashion that creates a positive impact on the people and environment in which it is working in.

In conventional manufacturing, up to 1/3 of all textiles is wasted in the production process and globally, 80 billion new garments are produced annually. Only a very small portion of these textiles are recycled. Imagine how much textile waste that creates and ends up on our landfills.

Zero waste design is simply a way of designing that addresses and minimises the waste issue.

You design in a way that reduces or entirely eliminates the waste in production. Clever pattern cutting and various draping techniques are creative ways to solve this problem.